“I guess it did…” I smiled as I carried on looking out at the library. “Guess it’s not so bad after all.”
36
“So, how’s the Luxomancy going?” August asked as we walked through the courtyard towards the dorms. I’d gone back to Greyford the day after we’d talked about it, and I’d essentially come to the conclusion that if it was going to help us defeat the Syndicate, then what I wanted didn’t really matter. I’d been trying to learn it for a few days now.
“It’s got a learning curve,” I explained. “It’s probably easier than Reality Magic, at least as far as its construction is concerned, but it’s really hard to get used to.”
“I mean, you’re literally manipulating light. I can see how that would take some time.” August shrugged.
“I’m sure I’ll get used to it eventually, but we don’t have any idea how much time we have…”
“It’ll be fine. You’ll be a pro soon enough. You’re a scarily fast learner…”
“Thanks… I hope you’re right…”
“Are you okay? You seem… I don’t know, you seem off.”
“There’s just a lot on my mind right now, I guess…”
“That’s hardly unfair… There’s a lot going on. You’d have to be mad not to let it affect you at all. Hell, I know I’ve got a lot of shit on my mind right now…” She sighed. “Just don’t hold it all in, okay? Talk to someone.”
“What about you?”
“What do you mean?”
“Do you talk to anyone?”
August stopped.
“I would… But I don’t really have anyone I can talk to… I don’t have a lot of proper friends… I’ve got you, but that’s about it… I don’t exactly hate Fire-bird anymore, but I still wouldn’t pour my heart out to her… And Matt… he’s amazing, but he’s gone through so much more than me, so I can’t exactly talk to him…”
“What about your sister?”
“January?” August sighed. “I don’t think she’d be much use…”
“You could always talk to Miss Artemis. That’s what she’s here for…”
“I don’t need a therapist… I just… I don’t know what I need…”
“You know you can talk to me.”
“You’ve got more to worry about as well…”
“I can deal with my own shit. But if you need help with yours then I want to do what I can.”
August smiled a little.
“I’ll think about it…” she agreed. “Anyway, we should keep going. Matt’s going to wonder where we went…”
*
We heard nothing when we knocked on the door to Matt’s door. No movement, no footsteps. Nothing.
“Are we early?” August suggested.
“No… Something seems weird here…” I crouched down next to the door and peered into the lock. “I can’t see him… Should we try and get in?”
“I mean, I have a key… Matt figured someone else should have the other key, so…” August revealed. I laughed a little. “What?”
“Just open the door…” I sighed. August unlocked the door and we walked into the room. “Shit…” Matt was lying on the floor, with a plate of food lying in a pile next to him
“Matt!” August shouted as we ran to his side. I checked his pulse and untensed.
“He’s breathing, he’s fine…” I breathed a sigh of relief. “We should get him onto the bed.”
Matt groaned as he regained consciousness about ten minutes later. August ran over to him while I sat up on the other bed.
“You alright?” I asked him. “We found you on the floor. Partially in your dinner.”
“Shit… I guess I must have passed out… I was feeling pretty tired, so…”
“‘I guess I must have passed out’? Are you serious?!” August punched him in the arm. “We were worried something had happened!”
“Why were you feeling that tired?”
“I just haven’t got a lot of sleep the last few days… I’ve been training pretty hard…”
“So hard that you passed out? That’s insane!” I scolded him. “What were you thinking?”
“I was thinking that we could be attacked again at any time, and we need as much extra strength as we can get!”
“And what use are you going to be if you can’t even stay awake! How are you going to be able to protect anyone if you’re half-dead! We’ve lost enough already, we are not losing anyone else. Not to the Syndicate, not to Elijah, and definitely not to their own fucking stupidity!”
Silence fell after that last rant. Matt just stared at me.
“I know, okay. I know that it was stupid… But I… I just…” he trailed off. “It’s all I can do… For…”
“I get it.” I didn’t want to force him to say anything else. “But all you’re going to do is hurt yourself. You need to slow down.”
“I… I know…” Matt sighed. August held his hand.
“You should get some sleep.” she suggested. “Like, right now.”
“I… I can’t… We’re supposed to be training…”
“It looks like you’ve done enough training today.”
“We’ll explain everything to the Professor. Don’t worry about it.” I stood up. “Just get some rest. Guardian’s orders,” I joked. “Hey, that’s a fair point. Am I in charge of you guys?”
“Like hell you are.” August laughed as she moved to leave. “See you later.” She smiled as she stood up.
“Later.” I waved as we walked out of the door. “Sleep. Got it?”
“Yeah, I got it.” Matt groaned as we closed the door behind us.
“Idiot…” I muttered under my breath as we walked down the corridor. “We’ve already lost one person. The last thing we need is for him to be hurting himself as well…”
“Emilie?” August seemed shocked. “You’re really pissed off over this, aren’t you?”
“You know what, I am” I replied. “Did he really not realize that what he was doing was stupid? All that it was going to do is put him and all of the rest of us at risk. It was completely insane, and thoughtless and… and…”
“And?”
“And I was worried we’d lost him…” I admitted. “Just for a split second… I thought that something had happened. That Elijah had caught up with us again…”
August nodded slowly.
“I guess that makes sense… I admit I’m pissed at him too… But try not to be too angry with him. You know what he’s gone through. You can’t blame him for losing control.”
“I… I guess not…” I calmed down a little. “I guess Matt’s not the only one going crazy… Then again, feeling crazy is hardly new for me…”
“Don’t be too hard on yourself. You’ve got a lot on your shoulders, and for a long time you were worrying about that on your own. No normal person would go through all of that and come out like nothing happened.”
“Yeah, I know… I just… I wish I was stronger…”
“We all want to be stronger. But it doesn’t mean you’re weak. You’ve got this far.”
“I know, I know… It’s not like it’s nothing I’ve been told before… Doesn’t make me feel a lot better though…”
“I guess that makes sense… Let’s just drop it then?” August suggested.
“Sure…” I hesitantly agreed as we carried on to the Sparring hall.
*
We went back to see Matt after the training session, to check up on him. He looked like he’d just woken up, but he let us in anyway.
“Feeling any better?” I asked.
Matt nodded.
“Sorry about that… I know I overdid it…”
“You don’t need to apologize,” August assured him. “We just don’t want you to hurt yourself.”
“Yeah, I know…” Matt sighed. “I’ll take better care of myself. Seriously.”
“That’s all we’re asking.” I smiled.
“So, anything interesting happen at training?”
I shook my head.
“Same old, same old…” August added. “You’re definitely picking up this Luxomancy quickly.”
“Show us?” Matt requested. I shook my head.
“Come on!” August argued. “You were doing some pretty cool stuff in there!”
“It’s just… It’s just a party trick at this point. Nothing that exciting.” August and Matt just stared at me. “Fine…”
I stood up and tried to remember the construction for the spell I’d learned. I pressed my fingertips together with my hands spread out and brought the fingers together. Then I extended all of the fingers out again, apart from the ring fingers, which moved the opposite way, with the second segment of the fingers pressed against each other. I then moved my index and middle fingers into the same position and pressed my thumb and little finger (Still straight) against the rest of the fingers. Finally, I brought my fingers back to their original position, pressed against each other, and a small light formed in the cage. I smiled as I looked up at Matt and August.
“So, can you do anything else with it yet?” Matt asked.
“I… I’m getting there…” I tried to keep my concentration as I straightened my left palm, trying to force the light to settle in my right hand, but it fizzled out. I breathed out as I relaxed my body again. “Shit…”
Matt clapped.
“Pretty cool, huh?” August praised.
“You really pick stuff up easily, don’t you?”
I shrugged.
“I guess…” I knew it was true, but I didn’t like admitting it.
You’re getting comfortable again… Something always goes wrong when you get comfortable…
The voices had to chime in, as usual. I bit my lip, trying not to respond, something which I still hadn’t quite gotten the hang of. Not that they were wrong. This was always the time when something bad would happen. But that didn’t mean they were right. That was what I had to tell myself. The voices were just my brain throwing out things that weren’t there. They didn’t have thoughts. They weren’t real.
“Is something wrong?” August asked. I snapped back to reality. I’d clearly phased out a little after the voices had made their comments. I nodded hesitantly.
“Yeah, I’m fine… Just… long day, that’s all.”
“Sounds like every day…” Matt decided.
“You can say that again.” I laughed. I flinched as I heard a faint rumble. At least, until I saw Matt touching his stomach.
“So, you haven’t eaten either…” I sighed as I stood up. “Right, who wants to get something to eat? It’s Friday, so curfew’s late anyway.”
Matt and August looked at each other and shrugged.
“Why not.” August climbed to her feet, pulling Matt with her. “What did you have in mind?”
*
Sitting around the table gave me a strange feeling, as I looked around at the people there. Matt, August. Raven. I smiled a little. We’d all gathered at some shitty fast-food place, given me and Raven were basically broke (Matt and August weren’t, naturally) but the food was fine, and to be honest I think we all enjoyed the chance to act like normal people for once. I know I did. It was nice being able to spend some real time with all of them, without worrying about Syndicates or magic or any of the five other things that were going on at any given time. To be able to just… talk…
We stayed there for about an hour before we eventually left. Matt and August headed back to Foxway, to get home through the portal, and me and Raven went back to my flat for the weekend.
“That was… nice…” Raven commented.
“What’s with the hesitation?” I queried. Raven shrugged.
“I just… I’ve never had friends. Not like this,” she explained. “I had plenty of people I was close to, both in the village and in the Syndicate… But they weren’t… they weren’t like this. Especially in the Syndicate… We wouldn’t spend time together. We were… We were comrades, I suppose. Fighting our battle… This is… it’s real…” Raven smiled. “And I never had that, not before meeting you. I had Mary, and even with her I was distant…” She turned to me. “Thank you, Emilie.”
I put my arm around my sister and smiled at her.
“No problem.”
37
There was a strange atmosphere at the school on Monday. Not in a bad way, by any stretch; people seemed excited in a way that I’d never really seen before since starting at Foxway. It didn’t take me long to find out why.
“So, it’s what, some dance for the school’s birthday?”
“It’s a lot more than that!” Mary replied, enthusiastic as always. “It’s the Architects’ Ball. It’s the biggest event on the school’s calendar! Even first-years know that!”
“It’s not like I haven’t had more important things to worry about…” I admitted. “Honestly, it sounds fun, I guess, but… I mean, with the Syndicate still out there… Do we really need to be wasting our time on dances?”
Mary’s jaw dropped.
“You’re seriously thinking about not going? That’s insane!” she scolded me. “The whole school’s going to be there!”
“She’s right, Emilie,” Raven agreed. “It’s a big event. You shouldn’t miss it.”
“You, at a dance? Really?” I questioned. “Doesn’t seem like your kind of thing…”
“That’s just it!” Mary jumped in. “You just can’t miss the Architects’ Ball. It just isn’t done.”
“I mean… It’s not like it doesn’t sound fun…” I admitted. “I suppose it’s only one night…”
“That’s the spirit!”
“When actually is it?”
“21st December, the Winter Solstice,” Raven replied.
“That’s still a while away… Seems early to get this excited…” I glanced at Mary.
“These things take a long time to organise.” Mary shrugged. “And I should know…”
I looked over at Raven for an answer.
“Mary’s one of the organisers.”
I nodded.
“What about you, Emilie?” Mary asked. “We always struggle to find First-years to help; I bet you’d have a good time?”
I thought for a moment.
“I mean, I’ve got a lot going on… With training and everything…”
“Come on, I’m sure you’ve got some free time. Even if you couldn’t do anything outside of school hours…” Mary kept trying to persuade me. And it was, I admit, working. Eventually, I sighed.
“Sure, why not…”
Mary practically jumped off the bed.
“Amazing! I’ll let everyone else know you’re in!” She snatched her phone off her bedside table and started typing furiously.
I laughed. Raven sighed.
Mary put her phone down and turned to me. “Be in Artemis’ office at lunch,” she ordered. “This is going to be so much fun!”
I looked at Raven, who shook her head, though I could definitely see a sliver of a smile.
“Yeah, fun…”
*
After a couple of ecstatically fun hours of Applied Magic Physics (still no idea), I walked into Miss Artemis’ office, just after the beginning of lunch. Mary was the first to greet me, bouncing out of her seat when I walked in.
“Emilie! Excellent!”
I looked around the room. There were ten people, including myself and Mary. I didn’t recognise many of the faces. Hannah was there, but other than that, I could only pick out a couple of faces who I’d seen around school.
“So…” I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do. “What... What do we do?” I awkwardly asked. Mary, of course, was the first person to respond.
“Introductions!” she exclaimed. She pointed at each person in the room. “Hannah you already know. Then we have John…” she pointed at a Second-year boy with blond hair, “…Julius…” A tall, well-built boy sitting next to John, “…Scott…” a short, dark-skinned boy who I was pretty sure was in the Third-year, “…Hinako…” A
small but confident-looking girl perching on the windowsill, “…Jamie…” a studious-looking Third-year girl sitting compactly on the sofa, “…Joye…”, a girl who looked almost as excited as Mary, “…And Polly.” She finished with a tall, attractive girl who I recognised immediately as Polly Evergreen, the head girl. I hesitantly waved at the room full of people.
“I’m Emilie…” I introduced myself. I turned to Mary. “You weren’t kidding when you said First-years didn’t do this…”
“They’re not going to bite. Besides, you know you are actually the same age as the Second-years?” Admittedly she wasn’t wrong.
“So, we’ve got some organising to do!” Mary sat down on Artemis’ chair. “Themes, anyone?”
Lunch sped past as people shot ideas back and forth for the Architects’ Ball. Every theme under the sun was suggested (Including ‘Under the Sun’, ironically enough, though I wasn’t sure it was quite right for a dance in the middle of December...) but we didn’t manage to make a decision before people started to disappear as they remember that classes actually existed.
“So, how was that?” Mary asked as she walked with me to the dorms.
“You definitely looked like you were having fun,” I replied. “Anyone would have thought you were in charge of it.”
Mary shrugged.
“Polly’s technically in charge of it, being head-girl and all, but we all choose together. I admit I do get pretty into it…”
“Still, it seems like it’s all going to be fun,” I decided. “Thanks for inviting me.”
“It’s not problem.” Mary smiled. “As I said, First-years don’t generally go in for the organising, so it was nice to see you there.”
“When’s the next meeting?”
“Two days,” Mary replied. “People are busy tomorrow. That’ll give us time to think on the theme though, so it’s probably a good thing…”
“Yeah, that’s true,” I agreed. “So, what’re you doing now?”
“I’ve got a lesson…” Mary groaned. “I just needed to pick something up from the dorms. What about you?”
The Arch Stone: Foxway Academy: Book 1 Page 25